From digital political wars to awareness, memes flood social media
New Delhi, April 19
From attacking political opponents to raising awareness among the electorate, colourful memes, including many drawing humorous elements from popular Bollywood films, have flooded social media as the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections began on Friday.
Little humour won’t hurt
- EC sharing memes using local languages, Bollywood film posters to create awareness among voters
- Experts say humour appeals to youths, may have desired effect on minds of such voters
- BJP’s social media feeds largely dominated by images, slogans on Modi guarantees and govt schemes
- Cong, AAP taking veiled swipe at BJP with sarcastic taglines on social/political issues
This is the largest democratic exercise in the world and major political parties have tried to outwit their rivals both in rallies on ground and slugfests online. From Instagram to X, social media platforms, have seen bitter poster wars and even more bitter meme battles for political one-upmanship.
But, amid this digital melee, the EC, which is holding the world’s largest elections, has used memes to reach out to the electorate, especially the young, using at times quirky lines or dialogues from famous movies to drive the message home.
“We are excited to vote. Are you ready too?” the ECI posted on X on Wednesday, and used a meme based on a still from a scene from the film “Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani” with a tagline “Excitement of first time voters before voting”.
In its posts on X, the commission also at times used languages native to the region of polling to achieve greater connect with the masses. “Amar vote, amar doyitvo,” the EC posted on Friday along with photos of young and old voters of West Bengal. With photos showing voters in Rajasthan, it used lines such as “Padharo mhare polling booth” in its post on X.
In the past several days, the EC has also used memes to build awareness, as on April 11 it had posted a funny meme themed on web series “The Family Man”, leaving netizens in splits.
Experts say memes and humour appeal to youths and hence may have the desired effect on the minds of such voters as the poll panel is seeking to boost turnout.
The ruling BJP and Opposition parties, Congress and AAP — both part of INDIA bloc — have used the online medium and social media platform to outsmart each other in the NDA vs INDIA battle. On Thursday, the AAP ran a series of posters on X, attacking the ruling dispensation. A digital poster put up by AAP by X recently had a slogan — ‘Modi ko hatana hai kyonki….” along with a tagline “BJP hatao, Samvidhan bachao” and an image of Modi.
On Thursday, AAP also posted on X a few posters about its “Jail ka jawab vote se” campaign. On March 15, AAP had on X shared a video meme, mocking the BJP on electoral bonds, while other posts dubbed its manifesto, “Sankalp Patra as not a ghoshna patra, but a “jumla patra”. On Thursday, the Congress posted a video on X, taking a veiled swipe at the BJP with a sarcastic tagline “Berozgari bahut hai, Baki sab thik hai”.
